Stars-Wild Preview

Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin help the Dallas Stars form the league's highest-scoring team, although they don't expect goals to come easily Monday night.

The Stars have needed overtime to defeat the Minnesota Wild twice this season as they seek to snap their Central Division rival's four-game home win streak.

Dallas (24-7-2) is averaging 3.4 goals after Saturday's 6-2 rout of Montreal. Benn scored twice and added an assist while Seguin had one of each.

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Benn leads the NHL with 22 goals and he and Seguin each have 44 points to tie for second. The Stars matched a season high by scoring six for the third time, but they don't expect that kind of output in this back-to-back set against Minnesota (17-8-6) and Chicago.

“You're probably not going to see a game like tonight in the next couple,” Benn said. “So we're going to have to play tight defense, low-scoring games, they should be exciting ones.”

Benn and Seguin have combined for eight points in the season series, in which Dallas won 3-2 at home Nov. 14 and 4-3 two weeks later after rallying from three goals down after two periods.

John Klingberg scored the overtime winner in the first matchup and Seguin did the same in the second one.

Klingberg leads all Western Conference defensemen with 31 points and ranks among the NHL's leaders with 26 assists. He has five points in the season series.

Dallas had gone 0 for 16 on the power play in four games before going 3 for 8 against the Canadiens.

''It was good to see our power play grab the game,'' coach Lindy Ruff said. ''We played the plays when they were there.''

The Stars are 0 for 18 with the man advantage in their last seven road games and 1 for 6 in the season series against the Wild.

Minnesota starts a four-game homestand after Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Nashville. The Wild fell behind by two goals in a dismal first period in which Jason Zucker missed a penalty shot.

''Tough start, that's for sure,'' coach Mike Yeo said. ''The first period was not us and they were ready. We knew they would be ready.”

The Wild have outscored foes 15-4 in this home win streak since losing there to Dallas. They have gone 5 for 8 on the power play in their last two.

Minnesota also is beginning a back-to-back set, with Montreal visiting Tuesday. Devan Dubnyk has started the last two games for the Wild, and Yeo indicated that Dubnyk and Darcy Kuemper will split starts in these two games.

Dallas figures to do the same with Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen. Niemi may be the better choice Monday since he is 9-3-2 with a 1.97 goals-against average in 14 starts against the Wild while Lehtonen has a 3.40 GAA in seven starts at Minnesota.

Wild star Zach Parise has 10 points in a seven-game streak, his longest with the club. He has 25 points in 19 games against Dallas.